Michigan State's Jonathan Smith's First Season is About the Long Haul

Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith has a difficult task on his hands in East Lansing. As he enters his first season at the helm, Coach Smith has the long-term future of the program in mind.

Michigan State's head coach Jonathan Smith leaves the file after the Spring Showcase on Saturday, April 20, 2024, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. / Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA

Michigan State and Coach Jonathan Smith are using a busy and successful June to help build momentum as the season approaches.

Coach Smith enters his first season at the helm with expectations of various levels for him and his team. Most of the expectations for Michigan State and Smith are considerate of the situation he and his coaching staff walked into upon their arrival in East Lansing. However, once the season starts, preseason expectations go out the window, especially in a difficult season. 

While Smith stated earlier this offseason he would not be patient with turning Michigan State football around, after doing his part to help rebuild Oregon State’s football program, he surely knows the turnaround will take time. With that in mind, Smith has strategically made moves that have had the long-term success of the football program in mind. 

Some of Smith’s most prominent stances and decisions have come with the program's long-term future, including basing the heart of Michigan State’s recruiting efforts around players from Michigan. Smith knows that securing as many talented players from Michigan will make it significantly more likely that those players will decide against leaving East Lansing. Considering the popularity and ease of joining the transfer portal, Smith understands how crucial homegrown talent is.

However, primarily homegrown recruits only address the future Michigan State recruiting classes. The other part of Smith’s long-term plan was to use the transfer portal to the Spartans’ advantage during his first offseason. This gave Michigan State a solid class of talented players with experience playing college football.

Smith securing one of the best transfer portal classes in the country should help the Spartans get through the first season of the Smith era with enough success to build on the arrival of what Smith and his coaching staff hope to be a talented 2025 recruiting class. 

If the Spartans can have even marginal success, let alone more success than expected, more players will look to transfer to Michigan State next offseason. The Spartans could enter next offseason, retaining most of one of the best 2024 transfer portal classes in the country, with a chance of securing another talented transfer portal class again next offseason. Smith could then pair two solid transfer portal classes with a talented 2025 recruiting class, expediting the turnaround process for the program. Smith's first season at the helm is about much more than just the first season.

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